


The Faces of the Master

by WriteNow



Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who & Related Fandoms, Doctor Who (2005)
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-07-03
Updated: 2019-07-12
Packaged: 2020-06-03 12:17:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 12,786
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19463827
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WriteNow/pseuds/WriteNow
Summary: There were once two men. Both very similar and both very different. They grew up on the same planet, went to school together, survived throughout the Time War and travelled through time and space. They were both lonely inside and they were both too proud to admit it. The difference between them was this: one chose good and one chose evil. One chose to be a doctor and one chose to be a master. They crossed paths every so often where they would attempt to reconcile, but every attempt ended in failure and destruction. They were destined to be together but they always thwarted destiny. This is the story of The Doctor and The Master.When the Master meets a young Scottish girl, he sees a new way of looking at life. Skye becomes the Master’s only friend and confidant. One day, aliens come to Skye’s school and kidnap pupils. The Doctor comes to investigate and Skye finds herself friends with two Time Lords. Will the Doctor and the Master be able to put their differences aside? What happened to the missing pupils? And is compassion a weakness or a strength to the Master?





	1. How It Began

**Author's Note:**

> I originally published this on Mixital, but now it’s closing, I’m moving it over here. I'm publishing one short chapter every day, for ten days. Please comment, give kudos and subscribe. Enjoy.

_There were once two men. Both very similar and both very different. They grew up on the same planet, went to school together, survived throughout the Time War and travelled through time and space. They were both lonely inside and they were both too proud to admit it. The difference between them was this: one chose good and one chose evil. One chose to be a doctor and one chose to be a master. They crossed paths every so often where they would attempt to reconcile, but every attempt ended in failure and destruction. They were destined to be together but they always thwarted destiny. This is the story of The Doctor and The Master._

__

A man wandered down a street in Scotland. It was raining and he was getting soaked through to his skin but he didn’t seem to mind. He had what seemed like a brand new suit, the kind a businessman would wear and it seemed odd to not have a coat or an umbrella. The street was dark and there were no streetlights but he didn’t seem to mind. Everyone who saw him thought that he looked strange but he didn’t seem to mind. In fact, it didn’t seem like he minded anything. He was lost in his own thoughts, his hazel eyes staring up at the night sky. The clouds had moved so he could see the stars and the half moon. He heard a voice echo through the night.

”What are you doing out there, alone? Are you ok?” a young girl asked. She looked about fourteen but it was hard to tell in the dark and rain. The man turned and looked at her. It had been a long time since anyone had spoken to him, longer still since anyone had asked how he was feeling. He wasn’t sure how to respond.

”None of your business,” he replied and kept walking. He was used to being mean and he usually enjoyed it. Today, though, he felt different and wondered if he had maybe been too harsh on the little girl, who seemed quite innocent. He turned back to look at her, “Why do you care?” he asked, instead.

She thought about it for a while. “Because you seemed lonely,” she finally replied. “No one should be lonely.”

”Plenty people are,” he replied, slightly regretting starting the conversation.

”But they shouldn’t be,” she replied. “Everyone has a choice to be lonely. I wondered why you chose it.”

”I didn’t,” he whispered, feeling a moment of sadness. He repeated himself louder. “I didn’t choose it.”

”But you must have family or friends”

”Not any more,” he replied briskly, trying not to reopen any of his old, closed, wounds.

“What happened to them?” she asked, stepping out into the rain.

He sighed and began his story.

“My people, they’re from somewhere else. Somewhere far far away.”

”What like a different country?” she asked. “I knew you didn’t sound Scottish!”

”Further than that. More like another planet,” he said, smiling gently.

She looked up at the stars in the sky, not laughing or doubting him. ”Which one?”

”Gallifrey,” he replied. “I don’t expect you’ve heard of it.” He seemed a bit confused by something.

”What is it?” she asked.

”Nothing.”

”There’s obviously something. Tell me what it is.”

”You weren’t surprised. When I told you I came from another planet. Most humans would laugh. You didn’t.”

”You didn’t seem like a liar.”

He laughed a bit at that. It was the first time he had laughed in months. “I am... Was. I suppose. I haven’t really talked to anyone in a while. But you’re right. I didn’t lie about Gallifrey.”

”What happened to Gallifrey? Why aren’t you there now?”

He seemed conflicted for a while. A thousand answers came to his head but none of them seemed appropriate enough. He realised that it would take much longer than a sentence to explain.

”Do you want to take a walk? I’ll explain.”

She turned back into the doorway she had just come out of.

”Just wait a second.” She disappeared back into the house. A few minutes later she emerged, with an umbrella and a bag around her shoulder. She closed the door behind her and walked down the street to where the man was standing.

”Do you not have family who are going to notice you’re away? It’s quite late,” he said.

”My parents are at work. I’ve got two brothers and a sister. I’m the second youngest. I told my older sister that I was going out for a walk, she didn’t seem too bothered. My older brother’s out already and I go out at night quite a lot. I like the dark,” she responded.

The rain had returned and they made their way down the long street together, the girl holding her umbrella over them both though it was pointless as they were both soaked already.

”Do you have a name?” the man asked her.

”Don’t be stupid, of course I have a name. Everyone does. It’s Skye. Like the island.” The man nodded but looked a bit sad. “What about you, do you have a name?” she asked him.

He wasn’t sure how to reply. He used to have a name, back when he was a little boy, but he had kept that secret well and he wasn’t about to reveal it now. Apart from that he had only ever had a title. The Master. And he didn’t feel like it was right for him at the moment. The Master was who he had been when he had power, when he had control of the world. At the moment, he felt like nothing. As far away as you could be from a master.

”In a way,” he replied.

”Everything seems so complicated with you. You don’t have a family, you came from another planet, and now you don’t even know your own name! What do people call you? What did people call you?”

”Well, everyone called me The Master. I called me The Master.”

”Then I’ll call you The Master too. It’s a weird sort of name though. Did you change it?”

”Yes,” he replied, not seeming to want to discuss it further.

”What for?”

”To forget and to help me change. A title gave me a purpose.”

”Amd what is your purpose?”

”I don’t even know myself any more,” he admitted.

They continued down the long street though they were coming to the end. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a small brown bag.

“Do you want a jelly baby?” he asked, offering her the bag.

”Thanks,” she replied, taking one. “The black ones are my favourite.”

”Take a couple,” he added. It felt strangely good to be nice to someone. He wondered if he should try it more often. She took two more and turned to him again, as they moved down the main shopping street in town.

”You were going to tell me about Gallifrey,” she reminded him.

”I was, wasn’t I,” he remembered. He put the jelly baby bag back in his pocket.

”Gallifrey was far far away from here. Millions upon millions of light years. It’s in the constellation of Kasterborous. But you won’t have heard of that. There were two suns on the bright orange sky. Sitting proudly over the whole planet was the Citadel. A big city inside a giant dome. That was where the officials lived, and it housed the academy. Where I went to school.

Gallifrey was home to Time Lords. An ancient, proud, boring race. They wanted to play everything by the rules, they had no sense of adventure. Still, they were very clever and they watched the universe unfold around them, exactly as they predicted, never interfering, just watching. They invented time travel, they could see into the future. They were pioneers in science and engineering.

Anyway, there was a war. A Time War. The final Great Time War. My people, the Time Lords, fought another species, called the Daleks. It was stalemate. No one could win but the war was spreading throughout the universe. More and more people were getting killed but no one won so it continued. Then, it all stopped. Gallifrey was gone. Destroyed. But so were my people, my family. Now I really am completely alone.”

“Did the Daleks destroy it?” she asked, hesitantly, as she wasn’t sure how to pronounce ‘Dalek’.

”No, no. The Daleks were destroyed along with Gallifrey. The man who pulled the trigger, he was a Time Lord too, he’s called The Doctor.”

”Do none of your people have proper names?” she asked.

”No, no. Most of them do. We’re exceptions.”

”Do you hate him, because he killed your family?”

”Sometimes,” he responded.

”You should try not to.”

”Why.”

”Because he’s all that you have left. If you block him out then you’ll have no one.”

”We’re so different. And we don’t exactly have a great history.”

”Then make a great future. Just because you disagree on a few things, doesn’t mean you can’t be friends. You’ve got to live in the moment. Forgive and forget.”

”That sounds like something he would say.”

”Then maybe he isn’t as stupid as you think he is. He sounds like a guy who gives good advice.”

“Maybe, but I doubt it. He’s all talk.”

”If you say so.”

They reached the end of the long road into town so they turned and walked back the way they came.

”So what are you doing now?”

”Just wandering, I suppose. I got a job, Prime Minister, but I lost it. I took over the world. Not everyone was happy.”

She laughed, “Now that is a lie. You were never Prime Minister and I would remember if you took over the world,” she said in a questioning voice.

”Well, I was. Only someone stopped me, reversed time, then wiped the humans’ memories.”

”The Doctor,” she guessed.

”Yep. Always ruining everything.”

”Though he kind of did have a point. About taking over the world.”

”It was fun though,” he laughed.

”I suppose it would have been,” she laughed too. They were turning back into her street. “Do you not have anywhere to go? Where do you live?”

”I don’t really live anywhere,”

”Where do you sleep?”

”I don’t. Sometimes I go to a hotel.”

”But everyone needs to...” she began.

”I’m a Time Lord. I don’t.”

”So you’re just going to keep on wandering.”

”Yep.” They had reached her house.

”Are you going back into space?”

”I can’t. I’ve not got a time machine.”

”So you’re stuck?”

”Yes,” he sighed. ”You should probably be getting back home. We’ve been out for an hour.”

”How can you tell?”

”The stars.”

”Maybe I’ll see you again,” she suggested.

”Maybe you will.”

”Well, I hope you find someone and a home. You shouldn’t be lonely. You seem nice.”

”Thanks. You’re the first person who’s ever said that to me.”

”Well, people should say it more often. I’d better be going now, but if you ever need someone to talk to, just come and ask me.”

”I will.” He turned and walked away. “Goodbye, Skye.”

”Goodbye, Master.” She went back into her house and went to bed, happy that she had caused some good but wondering more about The Master and who he really was.

The Master walked back into the rain but it was beginning to stop. He was feeling things that he had never felt before. Emotions. Happiness and laughter and friendship. He wasn’t sure but he thought he liked them. 


	2. Divided

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> When children begin disappearing from Skye’s school, she consults the Master. He tells her to stay uninvolved but it might not be that easy. Another alien visitor is on planet Earth, one that the Master knows all too well.

Three weeks later, and The Master was still wandering. He had seen Skye a couple more times since their first rainy walk. She was filling him with positive emotions, things he hadn’t felt for months. She was showing him a new slant on the world, where everything could be good if it tried.

Then, one day, he heard that The Doctor was back on Earth. An advantage to living on the streets was that you heard a lot of things and he had been listening very carefully. He knew that The Doctor was renting a flat, a few streets away from Skye’s house and so he waited outside and watched The Doctor. From what he could see, The Doctor was investigating some aliens which had been kidnapping children from local schools. It seemed like he would be staying in the flat for the rest of the month. That gave The Master three more weeks to decide what to do about him.

He didn’t tell Skye about The Doctor. He knew that she would want to talk to him or try to make them friends again. He didn’t want that. Instead, he met her again, that Tuesday night. Every Tuesday night, from 6 till 7, Skye went for a walk with The Master. Every week they learnt a bit more about each other. Skye learnt more about who The Master used to be and about all of his encounters with aliens and The Doctor. She was surprised to hear about all of the bad things that he’d done but the man standing beside her didn’t seem as bad as he said he was and she felt like, with a bit of time, he could change. The Master learnt more about Skye and her family. Her parents both worked long hours and so they didn’t have much time for her. It as an advantage, however, as they didn’t notice her leave every Tuesday to walk with The Master.

During one of their conversation, Skye mentioned that children had been disappearing from her school. The Master knew that they had been taken by aliens but he didn’t want to tell her in case it worried her, and more likely, in case she tried to find them herself. Skye was fascinated by the stars and all of The Master’s stories of aliens and other planets. He wanted to show her some himself but he was grounded on Earth, just like her.

The next day, at school, Skye noticed two more children had disappeared during lunch break. There must have been around twenty children who had disappeared so far. Even more than that, if you counted children throughout the neighbourhood. Whenever someone went missing, they didn't launch an investigation or anything, all that happened was that their parents got sent a letter. She knew that there was something going on and she was sure that everyone else must know too. However, when she asked the teachers what had happened, they replied with useless one word responses. It was obvious that they were hiding something. She wondered if she should tell the police or her parents but she had a feeling that they wouldn’t listen to her. Nobody really did. They would all be far too busy. She also considered going to investigate herself, but she wasn’t looking for any trouble and she knew that if there _was_ a kidnapper, they would just as easily kidnap her too. She decided that she would ask The Master on their next walk, as he seemed to know a lot about aliens and she knew he would listen.

She wasn’t sure how to begin. “The children who got kidnapped,” she started, “I think there’s something weird going on. Something the teachers don’t want us to know. I think there might be aliens.” The Master seemed mildly surprised. Skye continued, “But you’d worked that out already, hadn’t you?”

”Yep,” said The Master.

”Why didn’t you tell me?”

”There wasn’t anything to be said. I didn’t want you getting involved.”

”Why?”

”Because it might be dangerous. You could be next on their hit list and walking straight up to them isn’t going to make them any less likely to kill you.”

”If I am next on their hit list then waiting around isn’t going to stop them. They’ll kill me anyway, others too.”

”What do you suggest we do then? he asked her, pretty sure that she wouldn’t have a clue and would let the subject drop.

”I don’t know. That’s why I asked you. You’re better at that kind of thing.”

”Well, I suggest you don’t do anything. The chance that they’ll come for you is tiny. Anyway, The Doctor’s here. He’ll sort it out soon I’d imagine.”

”Are you going to see him?”

”Why would I want to do that?”

”Because you want to make friends with him,” she suggested. They both laughed. “Ok, that was lame, but still, you might want to see him.”

”I doubt it.”

”Ok. Well I’ll see you next week.” 

They parted ways and Skye went back home. She wondered about what The Master had said. How The Doctor was going to fix everything. She wondered if he was currently in the school, going undercover and investigating. She decided that, if she wasn’t going to find the aliens, at least she would find The Doctor. She finished some of her homework and went to bed, worrying about aliens and doctors and kidnappers, but she also kept worrying about The Master.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please comment to tell me what you thought, leave kudos to show your appreciation and subscribe to see more of my work. Stay tuned for another instalment coming tomorrow.


	3. Class

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Skye arrives at school to find her old teacher, Mrs Dean, has won a holiday and a young, friendly man has taken her place, The Doctor.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here's another installment of this story. Please give kudos, comment and subscribe.

The next morning, Skye got ready for school, determined to find out what was going on. She decided that she wouldn’t try to find the aliens as she wasn’t looking for any trouble and she knew that it would be dangerous. Instead, she decided to look for The Doctor as she thought he would probably be in the school, if he was trying to stop the aliens. She had a shower, made some toast and got on the bus.

She got on the bus with her younger brother and a few other people from her school. The journey was quite quick and so she arrived at school with ten minutes to spare before lessons began. She wasn’t sure how she should actually go about finding The Doctor so she decided to just go along with her usual routine and see if anything happened. Her first lesson was double maths, an interesting subject but completely dull with Mrs Dean teaching it.

The bell rang for lessons to begin and hundreds of pupils dashed off in different directions, almost knocking Skye over. She had gotten used to it and so she took the quietest route to her class. When she arrived, she took her seat at the front and waited for Mrs Dean to arrive. She liked sitting at the front because you always got a better view of the board and you always seemed to get picked more to answer questions. Most people disliked being made to answer questions but Skye liked it.

Instead of Mrs Dean trotting into class, however, a middle aged man bounced in instead. He seemed to have a joyous air around him and Skye could feel the mood of the class improving. “Good Morning, class!” he exclaimed, with an enthusiastic bubbly voice, the opposite of Mrs Dean’s usual boring drone. “I’m your new teacher! Mrs Dean unexpectedly won a cruise to the Mediterranean so she won’t be back for a couple of weeks. I’ll be taking your classes until then.” Everyone seemed happier with the thought that Mrs Dean would be absent and some people even cheered. “I’m The Doctor!” he said, introducing himself.

Skye was extremely surprised and shocked. She had expected The Doctor to be a grumpy old man, nothing like the man in front of her now. She wondered if she had got the right person, but she had never met anyone called ‘The Doctor’ before and she didn’t think it was very common. Her suspicions were confirmed when one of the boys asked what his surname was and he replied “Just The Doctor. Just call me that.” She wasn’t sure what to say as she hadn’t imagined that he would be her teacher and she couldn’t exactly just walk up to him and say, ‘Hi, I know you’re an alien pretending to be a teacher in order to track down some other aliens who are kidnapping children’. Instead, she decided to play along with his act and behave as normal. She would ask him if she got some time alone with him, at lunchtime or something.

Skye was expecting a class on algebra but The Doctor began on a completely different topic. ”Now, this,” he held up the timetable with a list of instructions on it, “says that I’m supposed to be teaching you about algebra today. But I decided not to. I mean, come on, algebra’s a bit boring, isn’t it. Instead, we’re going to be talking about different kinds of numbers that you might come across, and a few that you might not come across, but I’ll teach you them anyway.” He walked over to the board and brought a marker pen. He wrote a series of numbers on the board. 1, 4, 9, 16, 25, 36, 49, 64,81, 100. “Now can anyone tell me what these numbers are?” A few people put their hands up, including Skye. He picked one of the boys at the back.

”They’re square numbers,” he said.

”Good, and what is a square number?” he asked the boy again.

”A number multiplied by itself.”

”Good, that was an easy one, though. Let’s give you all a harder one.” He labelled the first set of number ‘square’. “You all seem like a clever class. Now I’ll teach you a few ones you won’t have heard of.” He wrote another set of numbers. 1, 7, 10, 13, 19, 23. “Now these,” he said, “are happy numbers.” A few people sniggered at the back of the class. “No, no, they are. It’s a real thing. A happy number is when you square each digit, add the squares together and keep on doing that. If, in the end, you end up back at one, it’s a happy number.” He turned back to the board. “Now, for some examples. I want you all to give me a list of all the happy numbers between 20 and 40. 23 is the first one so you really only need to find the happy numbers between 24 and 40. Go!”

Everyone got their maths jotters out and started working on it. Some people were just doodling, Skye could tell, but she started working on it. Mrs Dean would never teach about happy numbers, Skye thought that if she had the choice, Mrs Dean would only teach boring or sad numbers, and only if it was on the curriculum. Skye wrote ‘Happy Numbers’ as a title. Then she wrote a list of all of the numbers between 20 and 40. She crossed 20, 21 and 22 out and circled 23, then she started working on 24.

After he had set the task, The Doctor had sat down at Mrs Dean’s desk and appeared to be trying to rewire some kind of machine. When he looked up, he saw that two people had their hands up, he put his tools down and he went to a boy’s desk. Skye heard them talking.

“Right,” The Doctor agreed. “Then it would be an unhappy number.”

”Ok, thanks,” the boy replied. He went back to work and The Doctor came over to Skye.

”What’s your problem?” he asked, cheerfully.

”I’m done,” Skye answered. Everyone in the class looked up at her, some of them laughing and talking to each other. She had gotten used to that. It happened a lot to her. The Doctor looked over her working.

”Good. You’ve gotten all of them.” he told her. Skye felt proud of herself. “Now, I think the others are further behind but you seem quite capable so I might as well move you on. So you know what happy numbers are and you also know unhappy numbers, they’re the ones that didn’t work. He smiled at her and she felt a bit embarrassed, blushing as she felt the rest of the class’ eyes staring at her. “You shouldn’t be embarrassed about being clever. Clever’s great!”. The bell rang and most people packed away their things. “Where are you going next period?” he asked.

”I’m staying here for english.”

”That’s me teaching!” remarked The Doctor.

Skye liked The Doctor and she was happy he was taking her next class. She was good at maths and english but she was awful at many subjects. PE was worst of all. She was awful at it and she always got laughed at.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you enjoyed this segment and are looking forward to the next installment, coming out tomorrow. Please comment to tell me what you think of the story so far, leave kudos to show your appreciation and subscribe for updates, so you don't miss a chapter. I love hearing your opinions and seeing if you enjoyed my work!


	4. Extraterrestrial English

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After Skye’s English class, she confronts the Doctor. She knows he’s a Time Lord and she knows about the aliens. They work together and everything seems to be coming together, until it suddenly falls apart.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We’re nearly halfway now! 😀 Please comment, subscribe and give kudos. Enjoy the story!

The Doctor’s english class was quite interesting. He told the class lots of stories about famous authors who he had met. It was funny though, as he said that he had met Jane Austen, Agatha Christie and William Shakespeare. The class all laughed at him and didn’t take him seriously but they enjoyed his stories nonetheless. Skye, however, knew that he could travel in time and so she didn’t have any trouble believing him. The class was studying “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” and The Doctor has all sorts of stories about the midsummer night that inspired the play. The class re-enacted the story and everyone played different parts. It was the most fun english lesson the class had ever had as Mrs Dean never read them the story, let alone helped them re-enact it. Instead, they usually had to write essays on what each character was thinking at each specific time and that really took the fun out of it.

The bell went for lunch and Skye realised that this would probably be her best opportunity to talk to The Doctor. As everyone packed their bags and left the classroom, Skye took extra long to put her things in her bag, dragging every action out to take longer but not so slowly that the other pupils would notice and ask her what she was doing. The Doctor had returned to Mrs Dean’s desk and was fiddling with the machine again. It wasn’t very big, it looked like it could fit in your hand and it had an areal coming out the top, as if it was picking up signals from somewhere. Skye looked over to the door of the classroom which was, thankfully, closed, and decided that she might as well get on with it and talk to him.

She walked up to his desk and waited until he looked up. “Hello, Skye,” he said.

”Erm...Doctor,” she began, unsure of how to phrase what she was about to say, “I know who you are,” she said. She was a bit annoyed at herself because what she said sounded quite stupid but she knew that she could have said a lot worse.

”What do you mean by that?” he asked, looking a mixture of intrigued, worried and amused.

”I mean, I know that you’re not really a teacher. I know that you’re actually undercover, looking for aliens who have been kidnapping children.”

”How do you know all that?” he asked her, definitely intrigued now.

”That’s not important. What is, though, is if you’ve found the aliens and if you know what they’re doing.”

”Not yet, I’m working on it. But how _did_ you know all of that about aliens. Have you seen them? Do you know them?” he asked her, seeming suspicious.

”No, I’ve never seen them, or met them.” She looked again at the machine on his desk. “Is that what the machine’s for. Sensing them or destroying them or something.”

”Yes, it detects their genetic code and can tell where they are. This bit on the front,” he pointed to a needle sticking out the front of the device, “turns in whichever direction they are. Then, there is a bell which goes off when you get closer. At least, there’s supposed to be, at the moment it’s not working.”

”And until it works you can’t do anything,” she guessed.

”Yeah.” 

“What’s wrong with it?”

”It needs some more magnetism on the needle, to get it to turn and to make it more sensitive.”

”What, like a big magnet?”

”Not that big, but yes, a magnet. Quite small but quite powerful. I had one, but I dropped it down the drain.” he looked a bit embarrassed as he admitted it. “I’ll be able to find a new one tonight, I’m sure.”

”Wait a second,” Skye looked through the drawers beside Mrs Dean’s desk. “By the way, do not tell Mrs Dean I did this.”

”What are you doing?” he asked, puzzled.

She continued looking through the drawers as she talked to him. “It’s just, during science class, when we were doing magnetism, she had this set of super strong magnets. She didn’t let us use them, because they were so strong, and she always used to lock them in a wooden box in her drawers. I saw her doing it.” Skye brought a box out from the drawer. 

“It’s locked,” The Doctor noticed, disappointed.

”Don’t worry,” Skye reassured him. “Do you have a hair clip or something.”

”I don’t think so, sorry.”

”Ok, I guess a paperclip’s going to have to do.” She took a paper clip from a pot on the desk and unravelled it, so it was just a wire.

”Do what?” he asked, confused.

She bent the paperclip in half and pushed it into the wooden lock, wiggling it around. “Do this!” After a few seconds of twisting and turning, the lock clicked, and fell off. The Doctor was shocked as she opened it.

”You bad, bad girl. That was brilliant!” he exclaimed.

Skye tipped the magnets out of the box. “I think this one’ll be best, don’t you?” she said, taking the smallest, round magnet and passing it to him.

”Yes, it looks perfect!” he exclaimed, taking the magnet and a screwdriver and attempting to attach it to the machine.

”Great, well then I’ll put the box away,” she said, tipping it’s contents back inside and locking it. 

”Argh. I need an adhesive. Something to stick it on.”

”Prit stick?”

”Stronger!”

”Ooh, I have some chewing gum in my pocket,” Skye exclaimed, bringing it out. He looked at her with a look of immense surprise, disgust and slight worry. ”Just in case of emergency. Anyway, get chewing. There’s still time to look for the aliens. We have half an hour.” The Doctor began chewing.

”Yes sir,” he said, eventually attaching the magnet to the top of the needle. It wasn’t the most elegant or beautiful of pieces but, when The Doctor pressed a button on the side, it lit up dimly. “We need more power!” he exclaimed. “Oh, hang on,” he brought a pen like object out of his pocket and pressed a button with made it light up and buzz. He put the object beside the machine and with a few short buzzes, he made the machine light up brightly. The needle on the machine swerved and pointed out of the door. 

“Let’s go hunt some aliens!” she exclaimed, getting her schoolbag and putting it on her back. She went to stand by the door.

”You’re coming?” he asked, surprised.

”Of course I’m coming.”

”It might be dangerous.”

”You seem to know what you’re doing.”

”I really don’t.”

”Well, that’s good enough for me. I want to know what happened to the others just as much as you do and if the best way to find them is by following you and your sensor gadget, then so be it, I’m doing it.”

”I can’t guarantee your safety.”

”No one, can guarantee anyone’s safety. And I’m not asking you to. Now come on, break only has twenty minutes left, the corridors should still be quiet.”

He sighed and joined her by the door. The needle changed directions and they dashed off down the corridor after it, swerving to avoid people. After about five minutes of frantically running down corridors, they reached an area of the school that Skye had never seen before. The bell on the machine started to ring softly and the air had an eerie chill around it. They kept on moving, through darkened corridors, until they could hardly see what was in front of them. Skye stopped for a moment. “Hang on,” she said, gasping for breath, “can I get my torch out because I can hardly see a thing.”

”Your what?” he asked.

”My torch,” she said, taking it out of her pocket, “emergency torch.” She switched it on. As she turned around to see where they were, she spotted a figure moving in the darkness. “Doctor! I think there’s someone there.” She moved closer, even though instinct was telling her to run. As she turned the corner to see who the figure was, a hand came up behind her and grabbed her. 

“Oi! Let go of me! Whoever you are,” she exclaimed, trying to push the figure off her. She looked at the hands that were pulling around her stomach. They weren’t human hands. They were blue. “Doctor!” she shouted, as loudly as she could, desperate for some help. The Master was right. She should never have gone looking for aliens. The Doctor ran around the corner and saw them.

”Jaglafex!” he shouted. “Leave her alone.”

”Why should we worry about you,” a chilling voice groaned.

“I’m The Doctor. I could give you a lot of reasons why you should worry about me,” he replied, angrily, with fire in his eyes. Skye realised that this was The Doctor whom The Master knew. The man who fought in a war and had seen a planet burn. Skye was glad that he was on her side.

”Why should we worry about you,” the blue monster repeated, “when we have you exactly where we want you.”

The Doctor looked confused, “What do you...” he began, as a blue dart whizzed into his neck, injecting him with something and knocking him out. As he fell to the floor, struggling to keep his eyes open and stay conscious, he managed to say to Skye, “I’ll find you. I’m coming for you. Be brave.” He fell to the floor in a heap. Skye was scared. Really properly scared. More scared than she had ever been before. She tried as hard as she could to be brave but she failed miserably. Skye managed to turn slightly and twist the torch so that she could see her kidnappers. There was a group of five blue creatures all marching her away. They were shaped like humans but they had no hair or noses and their skin was blue. They all had beetle like eyes and mouths with teeth like fangs. They were horrific. Skye made one last attempt to escape but she knew it was hopeless, even if she could escape, she had no idea where she was going. She managed to get out of the grasp of the creature holding her but another grabbed her instead. 

“Make it sleep,” one of them said. Another brought a syringe of what seemed to be the same liquid as they had given The Doctor and pushed it into her neck. She felt her body getting weaker and heavier. She tried her best to keep her eyes open but the dark seemed so inviting. In a final attempt to wake herself up, she pushed away from the alien holding her and pulled the syringe out of her neck, collapsing to the ground and falling asleep. The aliens were only mildly annoyed by this and instead they picked her up and carried her away.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you enjoyed the story. Please give kudos to support me, subscribe to see when I update some more and comment to tell me what you liked and what I can improve.


	5. A Change

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> When Skye goes missing, the Master decides that he has to take action. But, how can someone who has been evil for all of their lives, suddenly manage to turn good?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here's another chapter! We're halfway now. Please enjoy, kudos, comment and subscribe.

When the pupils came back from lunch they were surprised to find that their teacher had left. They were even more surprised to find that Skye was also missing as she had never missed a day of school in her life. They assumed that she must have been taken as well, just like the other missing kids and so the school sent a letter to her parents to tell them that their daughter was missing. The letter sat in their letterbox for nearly a week. Nobody had any time in Skye’s family.

The Doctor woke up on the floor of the school in the middle of the night. His first thought was about Skye but she was nowhere to be seen. He looked around and used his alien detector but it was broken and useless. Remorsefully, he went to the head teacher, saying that he had unexpectedly taken ill but he was back to resume his duties. He spent nearly a week of lunch breaks looking for Skye but he could never find her and he was no more closer to finding the aliens either.

Nearly a week later, on a Tuesday night, The Master stood alone in the rain. He was waiting for Skye and he had been for twenty minutes already. All the lights in her bedroom were off. She was never late. He knew something was wrong. He wondered if she was right and she had been kidnapped by the aliens. The Jagalafex. A disgusting species of humanoid with a beetle-human cross. They were slightly more advanced than humans but not much. They were just beginning to experiment with simulations and virtual realities the last time The Master has checked. He wondered why they would want children.

He wished that he had gone with her to the school and protected her or stopped her going to school, though he realised that both of those options would be nearly impossible. He wished that she was still with him, as she was the only true friend that he’d ever had. She never doubted him or made fun of him and he was a better person because of it. He decided that he needed to do something for her and that he was going to rescue her. Just once, The Master was going to do something good.

He didn’t have any mode of transport, however, and he knew he needed to get one. He used to have a TARDIS but he had left it on a different planet, before he knew that he was going to be stranded on Earth. He knew that The Doctor had a TARDIS, he was always leaving it hanging around and The Master figured he wouldn’t miss it for a day or two. The Master also figured that he didn’t actually care whether or not The Doctor would let him use his TARDIS, he was going to do it anyway.

He knew that The Doctor would be in his flat, with the TARDIS, because it was night, so he decided to wait until morning. He knew that The Doctor had got a job at Skye’s school, so he knew that he would be out of his flat from 9-5. That gave The Master plenty of time to take The Doctor’s TARDIS for a trip and put it back again later.

He decided to tidy himself up a bit. He was tired of looking messy and untidy. Tomorrow he needed to be more than just Skye’s friend, he needed to be a master, The Master. Although it may have looked like he had absolutely nothing, he had several pockets and they were all bigger on the inside than they looked on the outside. Between them all, he found more than enough money to fund whatever he needed to buy. He had saved it all up from when he was in charge of the world. He was glad of it now.

It was evening and most of the shops would be closed. Instead, he checked himself into a hotel for two nights and sorted through his pockets. He took all of his money out and put it in a pile, along with his credit cards and fake ID’s. He’d need to buy a wallet the next day to hold all of them. Next, he took some more, larger, objects out of his pockets. He had a laser screwdriver, similar to The Doctor’s sonic screwdriver but deadlier and much cooler. He also had a bag of jelly babies, a phone and a nice watch. Finally, he had a gun. The gun which his wife, Lucy Saxon, had shot him with, after his downfall. He remembered it. A whole year that never was. All about him. He smiled remembering it. All that money. All that power. All that fame. He drifted off to sleep thinking happy thoughts about taking over planets.

An alarm rang at 8 am. He didn’t actually remember setting an alarm but he was glad he did because he felt certain he wouldn’t have woken up on time without it. He hadn’t slept in a month. He didn’t need to, but it still felt good. He had a shower. He didn’t want to think about when he’d last had a shower, he knew it wasn’t very recently. He wasn’t sure what to wear as he didn’t want to put his old clothes on since he’d just washed. Instead, he put on a t-shirt and some trousers he’d found in his pocket the previous night. He hated the way he looked. He looked normal.

He took the lift downstairs to the restaurant and had breakfast. Then, he headed out to town. Most of the shops were open and so he went to buy a suit first. He chose a nice, expensive one which came with a tie and charged it to his credit card. In the same shop, he bought a leather wallet and some shoes. He went to a supermarket nearby and bought a hairbrush, a toothbrush and toothpaste and a shoulder bag. Then, he went back to the hotel.

He changed into his new suit and tie and instantly felt better. He laced up his new shoes and looked in the mirror. He looked much better and he knew it. Next, he went in the bathroom and did his teeth and his hair. He looked very similar to the way he did when he took over the world. He looked rich.

He walked to The Doctor’s flat. It was 9:30 and so he knew he was in no danger of being spotted by The Doctor as he would already be at work. He needed to be let into the building so he just buzzed all of the buzzers until someone let him in. Less than a minute later, The Master was looking through The Doctor’s flat. He could tell that The Doctor had come alone. There weren’t any bags because all of his belongings would be in the TARDIS. The Master wondered where The Doctor would put his TARDIS. It wasn’t in his front room or his bedroom. He checked the bathroom and the kitchen and it wasn’t there either. He couldn’t see it anywhere and he got angry. He kicked the wall a few times and, for good measure, punched one of the curtains. His fist hit something hard. He pulled the curtain back and there, hidden from the rest of the flat, was the TARDIS, The Doctor’s magic box.

The last time he had seen it was when he turned it into a paradox machine in order to take over the world. That had been a fun day. He tried the door of the box but it was locked. That wasn’t a problem. He used his laser screwdriver and, after a few attempts, the doors opened and he stepped inside, closing them behind him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you enjoyed that chapter and are looking forward to seeing what's happening next. Please comment to tell me what you thought of this chapter, I really value your feedback, give kudos to show your appreciation and subscribe to see more of the series.


	6. Base

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Master uses the Doctor’s TARDIS to search for Skye in the Jaglafex base. He finds out what has been happening to the missing children.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here’s another chapter. Enjoy! As always, kudos, comments and subscriptions are appreciated.

The TARDIS was bigger on the inside. The Master knew this but he still found it exciting going inside. The Doctor’s TARDIS was ok. He much preferred his but this TARDIS was probably his favourite of all of The Doctor’s. It was looked like coral and he took his coat off and threw it over one of the coral pieces. He walked up to the console and moved towards one of the screens. He knew that the Jaglafex were in the school, that much was obvious, but he needed to run some scans to find out which part of the school. He pressed a few buttons on the screen, then left it and looked around the TARDIS, drumming his hand on his trousers. 

A few minutes later, the console beeped and The Master ran back to it. The screen showed a map of the school with a red dot on it where the Jaglafex had their base. He presumed that was where they had taken Skye. He set the TARDIS to park right in the middle of their base. The TARDIS was indestructible and he would be able to use the exterior cameras to look around, while still in the safety of the box. He flicked a few more switches and pulled down a large handle on the console. The machine started to shake a bit and started making a noise. “Vroop, vroop,” it went, as it dematerialised and reappeared in the Jaglafex base. 

The Master moved to a different screen where there appeared to be a live feed of what was going on. He could see a clean, white area, very different to the dark dirty surroundings. In the clean area there were several computers, probably around twenty and plugged into each computer was a child wearing a headset. The headsets were plugged into the computers. The computers projected a virtual world, each one slightly different. The worlds were all pretty plain, the rooms were all white and there was a single whiteboard and pen in each. The Master suspected they were testing the children’s reactions to different scenarios. The children were unconscious but it appeared that they each were controlling an avatar in their virtual world. The children were solving simple problems that would take time and perseverance to figure out. The kind of jobs that needed to be done but nobody wanted to do. What the Jaglafex were doing seemed like an interesting way of getting them done.

The Master supposed that it was quite an efficient system, getting children to complete your work in a dream state, but he was still annoyed with the Jaglafex because they had taken Skye. He looked around the room but he couldn’t see her anywhere so he presumed that she must be in a different room. This room didn’t have any Jaglafex in it and, when he ran a scan, there weren’t any very close nearby. He decided to leave the TARDIS there because he didn’t want anyone to steal it. It was his only way out. Just in case, he changed the controls so that it was invisible to anyone who looked. He would still be able to find it, however, as he was a Time Lord and he would be able to sense it. He picked his coat up and put it on, on his way outside. Once outside, he turned and locked the TARDIS with his screwdriver.

He looked both ways to check that there was definitely nobody else there and went to look at the computers. He shook a child on the shoulders but they were completely asleep and they didn’t show any signs they were waking up. He looked at the program the computer was running. He was correct, the program was giving the children simple problems and when they figured out a solution, it would record it and move them on to a different problem. All of the computers in the room were all running fairly similar programs in the same manner. 

He walked down the corridor and looked both ways when he came to a junction. He couldn’t hear any noise so he presumed that there was no one nearby. He saw another room, further down the corridor and went to look in it. At first, it looked exactly the same as the previous room he had been in. There were around twenty children all plugged into computer simulations. When he looked at the simulations, he saw that they were harder problems. He wondered if the children progressed further on, depending on how long they had been there, or if the children were classed by their intelligence. He checked and Skye wasn’t there either, so he went to the next room down the corridor.

This time, there were only around fifteen children in the room. When he looked at their programs, he could see that these programs were more advanced and that the children were solving them almost as quickly as the first set of children had been solving the easy problems. That meant that they were grouped by intelligence and it seemed as if the further along the corridor you got, the harder the problems were. In the room that he was currently in, Skye wasn’t there, so he left and moved down the corridor. There was only one more room in the corridor before it opened up to a larger area. He could hear some noise coming from the larger area and so he presumed that the Jaglafex were in there. That seemed to be their main control area. 

He went into the last room, being careful so that no one in the main control room could see him. Here, the children were solving problems that even The Master thought were hard. There were only around five of them but Skye wasn’t there. He was extremely puzzled. The only possible option was that she was in the main control room.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading. Please leave a comment to tell me what you thought, give kudos to show me if you enjoyed the work and subscribe so you don’t miss any uploads.


	7. Dreams

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Skye finds herself in a white room with the Jaglafex, who want to experiment on her. Will she ever make it out of this alive?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here’s another chapter for you to enjoy. As always, kudos, comments, subscriptions, bookmarks and views on my other works are greatly appreciated.

After Skye had been kidnapped and knocked out, the Jaglafex had taken her to a white room with one chair in the middle. Beside the chair was a computer. She had tried to make them tell her what was going on but they refused. The pulled her to the chair and made her sit down. She tried to run away and so they shot her with a dart full of the sleeping liquid. When she woke up, she had been handcuffed to the chair. She was extremely confused and still really tired from being knocked out twice in what seemed to only be a day and not getting any proper sleep. 

Two Jaglafex came into the room. One was carrying a kind of claw with wires coming out of it, the other was carrying a syringe of the sleeping potion. “What’s that?” she asked them, but they didn’t respond. The one with the claw plugged the wires into the computer next to Skye. She groaned as she realised that the claw was probably going to be attached to her in one way or another.

”Why do you groan?” the other one asked her.

”Because that thing’s going to be put on me, isn’t it,” she replied.

”You are correct, human,” it replied.

”What is it?”

”You will see,” it said. The other one brought the claw and placed it on her head. She tried to kick the alien away but she knew that she wasn’t doing it any real harm. The other one sighed. “This is the most sedative we’ve ever used on a human before.” He brought the syringe towards her. 

“Not again,” she groaned, sighing. “Can’t you lot just leave me alone!” she shouted as they injected her and she felt herself going to sleep again.

When she woke up she wasn’t in the room anymore. She was sitting in a strange room at a table with a Jaglafex sitting opposite her in another chair. It all felt very wrong. “What? Where am I? How did I get here?” she asked but it didn’t seem to hear her. “Hello,” she said, waving her hand in front of it but it couldn’t see her. “Can you even...” she was cut of as it started speaking.

”Welcome to the human intelligence testing program created by the Jaglafex. This is a recording. You will be presented with several questions to determine your intelligence. When you get one correct, we will move on. Your responses are being recorded”, it said, with a flat, emotionless voice. She stood up and walked around the table towards it. It didn’t look at her, it was still staring across the table, where she used to be sat. She tried to touch it and the Jaglafex seemed to flicker. It wasn’t really there, it was just an image. She ran to the door of the room but it wouldn’t open. She hit it and whacked it with as much force as she could but it wouldn’t budge. She saw a lock and so she looked for something to pick it with. She didn’t have a hair clip but, when she looked through her pockets, she found the paperclip from earlier. She used it and eventually got the door open but when she opened it there was nothing beyond it. It was white empty space. She tried to walk into it but there was some kind of barrier. She hit it with all of her force but it remained there. She knew there was no point in trying to get out that way so she went back to the Jaglafex projection at the table. She thought about it. There was no way to get out of it as it was a computer simulation. The Jaglafex had said that it was going to test her intelligence and she figured that she might as well fulfil its request as it was her only chance of getting out.

”I know that the only chance of me getting out of here is to take your test so tell me, what is your first question?” she asked it.

”The test is split into three sections. Logic, arithmetic and problem solving. First. Logic.”

The Jaglafex passed her a piece of paper and a pen. There were questions that usually featured in every average IQ test, to do with shapes and completing patterns. She completed them all fairly quickly and she didn’t find them very hard. There were around twenty questions and when she was finished, she put the paper back on the table, around ten minutes later. “Ok, done. Are you going to mark it or something?” The Jaglafex took the paper and read it, extremely quickly. 

Then it said, “Next, arithmetic,” a second paper appeared and the first paper disappeared. 

“So I got them all right then. You said that if I got it right you would move on, that’s good.”

She took the next paper. There was a number pattern puzzle featuring similar patterns that The Doctor had taught her in his maths lesson. Skye passed the paper back to the Jaglafex around five minutes later. The paper disappeared and another appeared. “Finally, problem solving,” the Jaglafex said and passed her the paper.

Some of these were quite difficult but they were mostly ok. She actually found herself enjoying some of them. She finished it and put it on the table. The Jaglafex took it and it disappeared. “You have finished the test. Your results are being calculated.”

”In your own time,” she said, sarcastically. She twirled the pen around in her hand a few times while she waited. 

“You have been identified as highly intelligent. You will now complete problems for us for the rest of your life.”

”What! No, no way!” she argued.

”The test is complete. You will wake up.”

She felt herself wake up and she was back in the original room. The Jaglafex were still in the room and she still had the headset on. One of them took the headset off while the other talked to her. He still had a syringe of sleeping liquid. She looked at the one facing her and she had an idea. She could see that it had the sleeping potion dart gun in its belt. As it reached over her, she managed to gently pull the gun with the ends of the fingers. She didn’t take any chances and, as soon as she got the gun, she shot the nearest one, knocking it out. She could see the other one turning to run away and so she shot it too, before it could get away. Very slowly, she managed to wriggle her hands and wrists out of the handcuffs, helped by some Jaglafex spit which had landed on her hand, and stand up.

She left the room and looked both ways as she reached a long corridor with rooms every few meters. She held her gun up and pointed it into each room she saw. Surprisingly, she saw that inside the rooms were tons of children plugged into computers, similar to her intelligence test. When she looked on the screens beside them she saw that they weren’t doing the test, they were solving problems. She figured that this was what they had wanted her to do. Every room that she passed contained a few children, but no Jaglafex. She kept going until she reached the final large room. 

Inside it, there were hundreds of Jaglafex, all wandering around, talking to each other and working on computers. They all stopped and turned as she entered the room. “Tell me how to get out!” she shouted to the room, moving her gun around. “Tell me!” None of them said anything. “Ok, well then, I’m going to shoot you all until you tell me how to get out.” She felt guilty as she shot the Jaglafex nearest to her. No one did anything so she kept doing it, shooting ten in total. They still didn’t do anything so she realised she needed to take a different approach. There were a few Jaglafex in a cluster in the middle of the room. They were wearing special robes and Skye presumed that they must be the officials. “Ok then. I’m going to shoot your leaders. Then maybe you’ll tell me what I want to know. That’s all I need. Just a simple set of instructions and I’ll leave.” She shot one of them and the crowd gasped. “Anyone?” She shot the next one. “Because I can shoot you all if you’d rather.” She shot the next Jaglafex leader. “Don’t think I won’t because I am angry. I am very, very angry.” She got to the final leader. He had some kind of crown on his head and his were the only red robes. “Time to shoot your boss. This is your final chance. Just tell me, it’lll make it easier for all of us. Come on! Speak up or you’re off to sleepy land with the rest of your gang.” No one said anything and so she did as she said. She shot the leader. Suddenly, one of the Jaglafex behind her kicked her shins and she fell over. They stole the gun and shot her with it. She was annoyed with herself. She should have been looking at the ones behind her as well. Oh well, she thought, as she drifted off to sleep, it was good while it lasted.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you enjoyed that. As I said at the beginning, I would love it if you leave kudos, subscribe, leave comments, bookmark this work or view some of my other works. Your support means everything and I love hearing if my work made you happy.


	8. Rivalry

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Doctor returns home to find his flat broken in to and his TARDIS missing. He manages to locate the Jaglafex base. Will the rivalry between the Doctor and the Master ruin their chances of survival?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We’ve almost finished now! Here’s another chapter. As always, please give kudos, comment, subscribe, bookmark and check out some of my other works. If you like this, you’ll love my latest Doctor Who work, ‘Our Place in the Universe’.

The Doctor returned back home after another long day of school teaching. He was surprised when he saw that the lock on his door had been forced open. He dashed to check on his TARDIS and it was missing. He figured that someone must have stolen it from him while he was out. The big questions were who would steal it and why. He scanned using his sonic screwdriver to look for energy traces of what species had been there. He saw that there had been someone else in his flat from 10 am but they hadn’t left. That meant that they had stolen the TARDIS. He scanned again and the readings that he read told him that it was a Time Lord. He figured that it was impossible so he ran the scans again. It was definitely a Time Lord and there was only one Time Lord left apart from him. The Master. The Master had stolen his TARDIS. This was very bad news for The Doctor because in all of his previous experiences with The Master, he was evil. Pure evil. And crazy too.

The Doctor used his sonic screwdriver to try to locate the TARDIS. Apparently it was inside the school where he was teaching. He wondered if The Master was working with the Jaglafex and stealing the TARDIS was part of their plan to stop him interfering. He headed straight back to the school, following his sonic screwdriver. He was led to a trapdoor in the school playground. As their was nobody there, he could slip inside unnoticed. He was annoyed that he hadn’t tried the trapdoor before, but he wasn’t following the TARDIS’s signal before. Maybe The Master was leading him to the Jaglafex base. Even if it was accidentally. He opened the trapdoor with his sonic screwdriver and climbed down a ladder which led to another trapdoor. When he opened that trapdoor, he found himself above a long corridor. He stuck his head out and looked both ways but there was nobody there so he dropped down into the corridor containing the children and computers in rooms.

He entered the room nearest to him, at the bottom of the corridor. There were lots of children, several of whom were from the school, attached to computers. They were all running a basic problem solving simulation. The Doctor sensed the TARDIS’s presence. He couldn’t see it however so he presumed that The Master must have made it invisible. He followed his senses as closely as he could and stuck his hand out, waving it around the place. Finally, his hand hit the wooden box. He moved it around until he felt the handle. Next was the tricky part. He got the key out of his pocket and tried to feel around for the lock. Eventually, he found it and unlocked the door. The first thing he did when he entered the TARDIS was turn the invisibility off.

He went back into the room he had just passed through. The Doctor was annoyed with The Master and the Jaglafex. Using children as slaves to do all of their dirty work! He moved to the nearest child and sonicked the computer. It went blank and The Doctor pulled the headset off them. They woke up slowly and he moved onto the next child, repeating the process 20 times. When he had finished the last child, he made sure they were all ok, told them to all wait in the TARDIS, and told them not to ask any questions. They were all too drowsy and confused to object and The Doctor smiled as he heard their reactions to the TARDIS being bigger on the inside. He moved onto the next room of children and repeated the entire process, sending them all back to the TARDIS. He also told them to remind the others not to touch anything as he didn’t wan them accidentally exploding a planet. That wouldn’t make the day any better. 

He repeated the same process of waking the children up and sending them back to the TARDIS four or five times. Finally, he went to join them in the TARDIS. He was going to take them all home first because he didn’t want a lot of schoolchildren messing around when it could be dangerous. He brought them all to the local police station and said that he had found them held captive but he rescued them. He said that the people who had kidnapped them had run away, just to keep the police from interfering. They were asking too many questions and so he knocked them all out for ten minutes with a couple of blasts from his sonic screwdriver. That gave him plenty of time to get back to the TARDIS and well away from all of the questions. It also gave him time to find The Master and the Jaglafex. He also remembered that he needed to get Skye, because he hadn’t seen her in the mass of children who he had rescued.

He went back in the TARDIS to the school and went all the way to the end of the corridor, to the control room. As he approached he heard a noise that sounded similar to gunshots, trying hard not to think about what might have caused them. He didn’t want to be spotted by the Jaglafex so he waited by the door, unsure of how to enter. Eventually, he decided to just walk in, out in the open. He didn’t see the point in hiding.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading. Look out for the next chapter, coming out tomorrow. Please comment, subscribe, give kudos, bookmark and check out my other works. See you again tomorrow!


	9. Plans

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Master finally meets the Jaglafex and discovers their plan. Will he manage to team up with the Doctor to save Sky?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here is the penultimate chapter of this fic. Please leave kudos, comment, subscribe, bookmark, and view some of my other works. Enjoy!

The Master entered the Jaglafex Control Room, unaware that The Doctor had been in another part of the building and had taken the TARDIS. As he entered the room, he looked around. There were around a hundred Jaglafex he estimated. Several of whom were in robes and seemed like they hadn’t slept well. In the corner of the room he could see Skye. She was attached to one of the computers but she had a lot of guards around her. He wondered what she had done to deserve 3 armed guards and he was interested to find out. As he entered the room, all of the Jaglafex stopped and looked at him. They had been attacked in a way similar to this a few days ago and this time they weren’t taking any chances. 

“Alright, you lot. Let’s keep this brief. You give me the girl or I’ll find interesting and inventive ways to kill you.” They all looked around, unsure of what to say. The Master spotted the Jaglafex leader, who looked particularly grumpy after a bad sleep. “Big Jag,” he said, pointing at him, “you don’t want to be attacked do you?”

”We have already been attacked a few days ago.”

”Who? Who attacked you? Was it The Doctor?” he asked. He was surprised as The Doctor would never normally attack people, The Doctor preferred peace and talking to people.

“No. We do not know of this Doctor whom you speak of. We were attacked by the girl. The girl you want us to give to you.”

”What, Skye? She attacked you? I mean, one girl against a hundred Jaglafex and you call that an attack?” he asked, amused.

”She shot twenty of us with a powerful sedative. We only began to regain consciousness yesterday. We restrained her and she is now completing our program for us.”

”I’m proud of her. Of course, a sedative’s a bit weak, I would have just used a gun, but still, it’s a step in the right direction.” He smiled at them. They were all worried by his smile. People never smiled at death usually and they were slightly scared of him.

”We have her under control now. She’s our cleverest recruit. She’s working on our final plan for world domination.”

”Shouldn’t you be doing that yourself? I mean, what else are you doing? She might really mess it up and then what’ll you do?” he asked.

”She is under control. We are monitoring her and we are beginning to convert her.”

”Convert her? What do you mean?”

”She will be the first Human-Jaglafex. We have begun converting her brain into a Jaglafex brain. She will work for us and she will think like us.”

”Oh, no, no, no,” he said, moving past the Jaglafex to the corner where she was. “Unplug her. Unplug her right now!” he shouted. He took her pulse to check she was still alive and she was. He still had some time left. He brought his gun out and pointed it at the Jaglafex leader. “You are going to unplug her right now and give her back to me just the way she was, or you are going to die. Understand?”

”There’s no way to do that without losing all of the work she’s done for us,” the leader replied.

”Do I look like I care about your work. I don’t care if it destroys every single one of you. Unplug her and give her back!” he shouted.

”No,” the leader replied, bravely.

”I’m sorry. What did you say?” The Master asked, walking threateningly towards it. “Do you need a bit of persuasion?”

”We will not lose all of our work.”

”Lose a fraction of your work or lose your lives. And I’m surprised by the way you say that it’s your work because you haven’t done a single bit of it. I’m giving you a good deal, I suggest that you take it otherwise I’ll make it into a bad deal.”

”No.”

”Fine then, have it your way,” he said, pulling his gun up to the leader’s head. “Any final words you want to say before you die.” The leader said nothing. “Alright then,” he said, pulling the trigger. There was a loud bang and the Jaglafex leader fell forward, dead. “Now, I hope I’ve made myself a bit more clear.”

He walked over to another Jaglafex in a robe. “Jaglafex second in command, right?” he asked the creature. It nodded. “Great, then it’s time for round two. I’m changing my deal. I want her back, and I want you all of this planet in the next hour. Understand? You’ve seen what I’m willing to do. I’ll just as easily shoot you and this time I’m not going to take so long about it.

”We will not give up our work,” it replied. The Master sighed and brought out his gun again.

”Say that again.”

”We will not give up our work.” The Master brought the gun up to the creature’s head.

”One more time.”

"We will not give up our work."

"Any last words before you die?" 

"We will never give up our work!" the creature shouted. The Master shot him. He moved to the next one. "Well, he was boring, let's see if you're going to be more interesting." The creature looked scared. "And now, for the final round! I'm going to make this more interesting. When you die, you're dead, boring. One shot from a gun to your head and that's it. If you get shot in the arm, however, well, that's a whole different story.

So here's what I propose. You, or one of your other little friends, will unplug Skye and return her to me unharmed. Then, you're all going to leave this planet within the next one minute. No negotiations. If you refuse, I'll shoot you in the arm. If you refuse again, I'll shoot you in the foot. If you refuse again... well, we'll see if you're still alive then. So, now for your first attempt. 

Do it," he instructed the Jaglafex.

"No, no. I won't give the order. I won't." He winced and braced himself for impact.

"Have it your way." The Master shot him in the shoulder and the alien screamed in pain. "Do you want me to do that again?"

"No, no, no! I'm giving the order! Unplug the girl, prepare for an immediate evacuation and retreat."

"Good. You made the right choice."

Immediately, all of the Jaglafex started running around, switching computers off, pulling out memory sticks and packing bags. A few of them ran over to where Skye was sat. They unplugged her as quickly as they could and switched the computers off. "She will sleep for an hour, then she will be fine. No side effects," one of them said.

"There better not be," he said, sternly.

They finally managed to finish packing all of their bags and they stood in the centre of the room. Someone had given the Jaglafex who The Master had shot a bandage for his arm. There was a lot of commotion in the room as everyone moved together. One of them took a teleportation device and pressed a button on it. All of the Jaglafex were enveloped in a blue light and they disappeared. The Master took his laser screwdriver and burned all of the equipment. He didn't want any earthlings finding the extra-terrestrial equipment. He scanned for any alien readings but there weren't any Jaglafex left on Earth. However, he picked up an alien signal from across the room. He looked up, across the room, to see The Doctor. He wasn't sure what to say. The Doctor was the last person he wanted to see. He hadn't intended to be good or save the world, he just wanted to save his friend. The Doctor looked around the room to look for any damage.

”I thought I heard gunshots?” he said worriedly.

”Well, as you can see,” The Master said, gesturing around the room, “they can’t have come from here. Everything’s perfectly fine.”

The Doctor could tell that something must have happened but, as he had no evidence to prove it, he decided to just let it go. He smiled at The Master. “You saved the world. I’m proud of you.”

”It was an accident,” The Master replied.

”It was a good accident.” He nodded at Skye. “So, you met Skye.”

”You did too.”

”Yes, I was her teacher,” The Doctor replied. “I really am proud of you though. It shows, you really can be a good person if you try. Come with me. I can help you. I can teach you. I can show you how to do it properly.”

”No. I work alone. Today was an accident. I only meant to save one person.”

”Yes, but you meant to save them. Not kill them or harm them. Save them.”

”I don’t want to talk about it.”

”Please, please do. We can sort it out together, you and me. Just like old times. You’re the only Time Lord left. You’re the only other person I have.” The Doctor begged him to come.

The Master was feeling uncomfortable. He didn’t want to join The Doctor and that was it. He could feel that the conversation wasn’t doing either of them any good. The Master was tired of having so many complicated emotions in one day. With a sigh of regret, he picked up the only remaining sleeping dart gun. He slowly raised it towards The Doctor.

”Please, don’t do that. Please.” he begged.

”I’m sorry,” The Master said, and he really was sorry. He pulled the trigger.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you enjoyed this fic and are looking forward to seeing how it ends. I will post the final chapter tomorrow. As I said at the start, please leave kudos, comment, bookmark, subscribe and view some of my other works. I love receiving your support and feedback and I really value what you have to say. It's nice to know if someone appreciates what I do.


	10. Endings?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> As promised, here's the concluding chapter of this fic. Will the Doctor and the Master ever become friends again? Will Skye get home safely? Has the Master finally changed for the better? All will be revealed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here's the final chapter. I hope you've enjoyed the story so far. Please comment, leave kudos, subscribe to my account, bookmark and view some of my other works. Enjoy!

The journey back to the TARDIS was a hard one for The Master. He felt had too much time to think. He thought about his changes in personality. Here he was, half carrying, half dragging, an unconscious Doctor back to his TARDIS. He was in a position he never thought he’d have to be in. He put The Doctor on the floor of the TARDIS and went back for Skye. She was still asleep and he picked her up in his arms, carrying her back to the TARDIS and putting her on the seats. There he was, standing in a TARDIS with the only two people left in the world who cared for him. And he cared for them both too, in a way, though it was often hard to see, in The Doctor’s case. He cared about him enough to carry him back to his TARDIS and fly him back home. He cared about Skye enough to kill for, though that wasn’t saying much as he had killed people before. He supposed that he cared for her enough to go out of his way to help her, something he wouldn’t do for anyone else.

He set the TARDIS for Skye’s house first. Dropping her off in her bedroom, unbeknownst to anyone else. He figured she’d have trouble explaining what happened to everyone else but that was for her to figure out. He knew she’d think of something. He tucked her up in bed and left a few of the black jelly babies on her bedside table. He’d remembered that they were her favourites. He dematerialised the TARDIS again, this time with a different destination. 

The TARDIS appeared in The Doctor’s flat. The Master parked it where he had stolen it from and, with a final burst of energy, he lifted The Doctor off the floor and lay him down on his bed. He went back for his bag and threw it over his shoulder. He closed the doors to the TARDIS and went to sit on the edge of the bed, near The Doctor. He left the jelly baby bag beside his bed, taking a few for himself too, of course. He realised how ironic it all was. The Doctor and The Master, not trying to kill each other. They were just two, very broken Time Lords, sitting together in peace. 

The Master closed the door to The Doctor’s flat slowly, trying not to wake him and made his way back into the rain. He went back to the hotel and stayed another night. He wasn’t going to be good, he was The Master and he enjoyed it. There was no point in trying to make him good. However, for a few moments, when he was being good, he enjoyed it. The truth was, he didn’t know who he was, but he knew he was The Master again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you liked that. Please re-read the fic if you enjoyed it. Also, leave kudos, subscribe to my account, comment, bookmark and view some of my other works. I really enjoyed writing this and I hope you enjoyed reading it. I really value your feedback and seeing your appreciation brightens my day.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! If you liked this work you'll love my other fic 'Our Place in the Universe'. It's about the Doctor and the Master growing up on Gallifrey, in the Time Lord Academy. Make sure to check it out and see you soon! 😀


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